"Tomorrow is the D-day. We are ready to form the government. We have the numbers and we are ready to announce tomorrow.

"Tomorrow, we are ready. But the best time (for the takeover), I tell you, is when we meet the prime minister.

"A peaceful transition is paramount," he added, conceding that there will not be a change of government tomorrow as he had promised earlier.

According to him, Pakatan Rakyat has submitted a letter to Abdullah today seeking a meeting for a smooth transition of power.

"We have the numbers but we want to meet with Abdullah, show him the evidence and work out a handover because we want a peaceful transition," he said to the jubilant cheers of the crowd.

The opposition leader also did not provide more information on how many MPs Pakatan has in the bag and the number of government defectors.

Anwar will need at least 31 defectors from BN and perhaps over 40 for a stable Pakatan government.

"I believe that the government will fall in the next few weeks," he told journalists after the rally.

The massive crowd had earlier gathered at the Kelana Jaya stadium in Petaling Jaya to celebrate Pakatan's 'Hari Malaysia' celebration.

ISA dragnet slammed

Anwar, who began his 45-minute speech at 10.45pm, also emphasised the importance of Sabah and Sarawak to Malaysia.He criticised the ruling Barisan Nasional for pursuing a divide-and-rule agenda at the expense of the two east Malaysian states.

"This is the first time ever a celebration of this scale is being held to recognise that we are one - that Sabah and Sarawak are part of Malaysia," Anwar told the crowd.

He added that he would declare Sept 16 a national holiday when he takes over the government.

Anwar also slammed the Abdullah-led government of practising racial politics, which he said led to last Friday's arrests of three people under the Internal Security Act.

He urged the majority Malays not to be swayed by BN policies.

"The Ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy) beefitted only the rich and elite Malays, not you," he said.

Anwar also said that he would reduce fuel prices by 70 sen the very next day after forming the government.

Most of those in the crowd are at the stadium tonight in the belief that Anwar would make an important announcement on the formation of a new government, which the PKR leader has repeatedly claimed he would do by tomorrow.

High expectation

Earlier, Anwar entered the venue at about 9.40pm to thunderous chants of Reformasi!' and ‘Merdeka'.Many Pakatan leaders were already at the stadium, most of them also believing that Anwar would make an important announcement at the rally.

Penang Chief Minister and DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, when asked if there would be a surprise announcement, merely said: "Wait for Anwar".

Many people on the ground whom Malaysiakini spoke to also expressed confidence of an impending change.

"He may reveal the first batch of defectors and maybe on how they will approach the king. I think they will wrap it up and form a new government by the end of this month," said retiree G Maniam.

‘I am surprised at how fast things are changing," said another Pakatan supporter at the stadium, Anthony Tong. The 52-year-old accountant from Cheras said that he would not be disappointed even if Anwar managed to seize power by the end of this year.

"What Anwar has said will happen soon as all the people are backing him. The change of government will happen very soon now," said Nursikin Bahrom, a 23-year-old student.

"Anwar has promised us a new beginning and we will support him when the battle begins on the 16th... he is our new prime minister and the BN should realise this," said businessman Abdul Aziz Rashid, 36.

Don't invite police, military

Meanwhile, PKR information chief Tian Chua said the three-member opposition alliance had already secured a simple majority in parliament and that more government lawmakers would defect later.

But he said there were concerns that the coalition - which has ruled since independence from Britain 51 years ago - would stoke conflict in order to justify a crackdown to keep itself in power.

"We want Abdullah to assure us there will be no repressive force used, like involving the police or inviting the military to take control," he told AFP.

Tian said the opposition's push had been helped by the detention of an opposition politician, a prominent blogger and a journalist under draconian ISA.

"Abdullah's final crackdown made people lose hope that he is ever going to be a liberal reformer, which he promised," he said.

Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar defended the detentions but said it was a police operation and not his idea - comments ridiculed by the opposition, which said he and Abdullah must be held accountable.

Spirits were high at the stadium, which was adorned with Malaysian flags and posters demanding the release of the opposition politician and the blogger - who remain in custody while the journalist was freed.At the rally, Anwar set out an agenda to fight corruption and protect the rights of all citizens in Malaysia.

"The Pakatan Rakyat government will uphold justice, a free judiciary, a free mediaand a professional police force," he said. - Malaysiakini

Have a Heart: Save IJN

Israel’s assault on Gaza, by air, sea and now land, has killed (at the time of this writing) more than 600 Palestinians, with more than 2,700 injured. Ten Israelis have been killed, three of them Israeli soldiers killed by friendly fire. Beyond the deaths and injuries, the people of Gaza are suffering a dire humanitarian crisis that is dismissed by the Israeli government. There is, however, Israeli opposition to the military assault. Read here...

Human Rights

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Child Safety

Parents, guardians, and adults who care for children face constant challenges when trying to help keep children safer in today's fast-paced world.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) offers easy-to-use safety resources to help address these challenges.
For decades, children were taught to stay away from "strangers." But this concept is difficult for children to grasp and often the perpetrator is someone the child knows.
It is more beneficial to help build children's confidence and teach them to respond to a potentially dangerous situation...
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Why Hamas is NOT the issue

Mohammed, age six, marched with determination to his bedroom, put on a record of the Fatah marching song, picked up a wooden toy rifle and marched out to the balcony. He pointed the rifle to the sky where minutes ago, Israeli planes flew over dropping bombs on Palestinian refugee sites. Mohammed told me he wanted to be a pilot so he could fight Israeli warplanes. “But Mohammed, the Palestinians do not have planes.” “I don’t care, I will fight them whatever way I can.”Was a resistance fighter born this minute or was he a “future terrorist”? (Beirut 1973)

How does one explain the horrific fate that has befallen caged Gaza – a land saturated with rubble and body parts – carpet-bombed by air, invaded by ground, attacked by sea? Put to the test of history, Israeli “explanations” fail the credibility test. continue here---------------------------------------------Robert Fisk: Leaders lie, civilians die, and lessons of history are ignoredWe've got so used to the carnage of the Middle East that we don't care any more – providing we don't offend the Israelis. It's not clear how many of the Gaza dead are civilians, but the response of the Bush administration, not to mention the pusillanimous reaction of Gordon Brown, reaffirm for Arabs what they have known for decades: however they struggle against their antagonists, the West will take Israel's side. As usual, the bloodbath was the fault of the Arabs – who, as we all know, only understand force. ..Continue here

War on Gaza

Israel's failure to learnBy Nir Rosen (Aljazeera)

When George Bush, the US president, first entered the White House as the commander-in-chief in 2001, Palestinians were being killed in the al-Aqsa intifada.

Eight years later, as Bush prepares to leave office, Israel is carrying out one of the largest massacres in its 60-year occupation of Palestine.

The US, then and now, strongly backs Israel's offensive, justifying it as being, in fact, defensive.To continue read here ...